Glass Whiteboard
Posted: Friday, June 18, 2010
by Michael Wilson
So you keep seeing these very cool and oh so sleek glass dry erase boards on All My Children, Grays Anatomy, House, TMZ and a half dozen other TV shows. You want one and you go browsing to find one. That big beautiful 4 X 6 X " frosted tempered glass with stainless steel offset mounts is nearly $1000. You start to evaluate just how much you like it.
Can you use 1/8 inch glass instead of inch? If the kids are going to be rough-housing in the area where the glass board will be you will need inch glass and you will want to have it tempered. However, if it is a home office where an errant staple or paperclip is the most dangerous weaponry, you can opt to use regular 1/8 inch window glass and save a ton over inch tempered glass.
If you are mounting it directly to a white wall you dont have to worry about the backing. But, if you are installing it against a colored wall or the wall has a patterend wallpaper, you will need to back the glass with a frosted or white backing. This isnt too costly, but you need to be careful applying the backing correctly if you want that sleek finished look.
Lastly, if you want the look of the most sleek of glass whiteboards (most architects and designers I spoke to agreed that Clarus Glassboards makes the top-of-the-line glass whiteboards you will need to find the offset hardware at a specialty hardware store for about $60 and you will have to have four mounting holes put into the glass prior to tempering. This is a step that takes some patience and glass bits. The proper technique can be found on the web. I can tell you that tempered glass virtually explodes when you try to drill it with conventional bits. Non-tempered glass cracks and breaks. I learned this multiple times, with multiple drills and multiple speeds wet, oiled and dry. The take away here is pay the glass guy to drill your holes. If he breaks some glass its his problem.
So here are the options:
1. Buy a piece of glass whatever size you want. Have the edges ground whether your going to frame it or not. It is much easier to work with it this way.
2. By a window film (I suggest white or frosted) that is applied by wetting the glass and squeegeeing out all the air bubbles. This will take a solid flat surface to lay the glass on. A good stiff squeegee made of hard rubber or plastic. I used a cheap - rubbery -wide putty knife I was given at a home show. After it is dry trim the film to a sharp bevel along the edges with a very sharp knife. If you plan to mount the board with an exposed edge be very careful on this step. Dont use the old rusty box cutter. Get a brand new single edged razor blade and make long smooth cuts.
3. Now you mount the board. You can build a wooden frame around the board or just mount it with mirror brackets. There are many other ways to mount your glass white board that can be found at specialty hardware stores. In any event plan what mounting method you will use before buy your glass. If you are going to mount it flat to the wall standard 1/8 inch window glass will work. If it is large and there is any relief between the glass and the wall I would suggest going to 3/16 or inch glass. If you want to use specialty hardware that gives you inch to 1 inch offset from the wall you really should use inch tempered glass. If that hardware requires holes in the glass, again they must be cut out before the glass is tempered.
Costs
4 X 6 1/8 " window glass $120
4 X 6 " window glass $144
Four holes $35
Tempering $60
Window film $27
Mirror brackets (10) $10
Frame (hard wood) max. 7 board feet $64
One inch round stainless offsets (6) $80
Framed 1/8 " tempered $271
Flush 1/8 reg, mirror brackets $157
Offset tempered $347
Built by your own hands, a top notch glass white board can be made for $347 or can be bought for upwards of $1000 (see commercial glass whiteboards ). The time I spent procuring materials and actually putting my glass whiteboard together was 7 hours, most of it -5 hours - procuring materials. So I made $50+ per hour for my time. Not too bad for a fun project.
One inch round stainless offsets
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